Friday Family photo

This isn't the best quality because it is a scan of a photocopy, but I was so thrilled to get it last week. The handsome young man on the right is my Uncle, and I think I know why my Mom used to say my brother (and now his son) resembled him. This is the graduating class of the country, one room school, Pine View, in Lee county, Illinois. Often in these rural schools, the teacher wasn't much older than the students (which in fact is still true in some high schools where a new teacher/graduate might be 22, and some of the students 18 or 19). However, I think it is interesting that the teacher and her 3 female students are all wearing identical dresses. I'm wondering if it was a home economics project, or if the photographer had clothing on hand for the photo shoot. Is anyone an expert on studio photography, or have you seen this before? I know many photographers in those days had suit coats and ties on hand for the men, and much later when my father had his formal portrait taken in the Marines in his dress blues, he didn't really own the uniform.

1916, when this photo was taken, was a good time for farm families, and my grandparents were doing well. My uncle went on to high school, I think he had a year or two of college, and then travelled in Europe (WWI was over). However, the disaster in this country known as the Great Depression was actually affecting farmers by the early and mid-1920s because many, including my grandparents, had over extended themselves during the war because of the demand for food. When the war was over, the market for their crops stopped, but they still owed on the loans.